Identity Reviews that Don’t Hurt: A Practical Playbook

Access reviews fail when they’re manual, slow, and unactionable. Here’s a playbook for evidence‑first identity reviews that teams don’t hate.

Principles

• Least privilege is a direction, not a one‑time event.
• Evidence beats opinion: show what a role can do, not just what it’s called.
• Make offboarding boring: standardize the “goodbye.”

Steps

1. Centralize identities (AWS IAM Identity Center) and require MFA.
2. Role clarity: short role catalog with purpose, owner, and allowed actions.
3. Review cadence: quarterly for admins, semi‑annual for contributor roles.
4. Automate inputs: export principals, last‑used metrics, and effective permissions.
5. Tighten: remove unused roles, break up “kitchen sink” policies, add alerts for admin elevation.

Evidence to Keep

• Role catalog (Markdown/CSV)
• Last‑used permissions report
• Tickets confirming removals & approvals

Result

• Faster reviews, fewer exceptions, simpler audits.

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Resources & Evidence

• Case Study: AWS Account Governance → https://doneal78.github.io/grc_portfolio/projects/aws-account-governance/?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=aws-governance
• Lab: Identity Center & MFA → https://doneal78.github.io/grc_portfolio/labs/aws-account-governance/?utm_source=devto&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=aws-lab